For the world’s largest architecture and engineering firms, any tool that helps surface the right information at just the right time is priceless. Take AECOM for example: Project management tools and efficient specification processes are vital to the company, given the awesome scale and breathtaking complexity of each structure it oversees. It makes perfect sense, then, that designers at the multinational firm might view Source, the new community marketplace for building-products, as an ideal fit for its work-flow.
Topping off an exciting week for Architizer, architects from the 1,500-person firm — recently ranked number one in Engineering News Record’s “Top 500 Design Firms” for the eighth consecutive year — have signed up on the platform and begun making searches for building-products for their latest projects. The introduction of this particular customer to the marketplace is more notable than most, given the extraordinary scale of the firm’s business activity year on year: In 2016 alone, AECOM clocked up $17.4 billion in revenue.
AECOM’s 3-million-square-foot Convention and Conference Center is planned for construction in Zhengzhou, China.
Why is Source a natural choice for a multifaceted firm like AECOM? A number of the firm’s core values provide an answer. Firstly, the practice prides itself on its ability to anticipate the evolving needs of its clients from the outset of a project. Source gives architects the ability to identify potential solutions as early in the creative process as possible, as they can begin researching real-world materials and building-products even at the concept design stage. Given the complexity of the projects they undertake, AECOM wants to know what’s possible and what’s not before they dive into the details, and Source helps it to do just that.
Secondly, the firm recognizes collaboration as a key part of its success, building diverse teams that connect expertise to create innovative architectural solutions around the globe. Knowledge-sharing across sectors is essential to delivering on the design briefs of AECOM’s clients, so any tool that enables the firm to harness the know-how of building-product specialists is a huge business asset. Source allows architects to directly communicate with multiple manufacturers within a single platform and use their insights to guide design development and specification.
AECOM acted as project manager and construction manager on the SHoP Architects–designed Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
AECOM joins other major international firms like SOM and HOK in becoming a part of the Source marketplace, highlighting the growing commercial desire for streamlined, user-friendly specification tools. As all architects know, time is money, and with projects the size of AECOM’s, this fact is magnified tenfold. The firm can now add Source to its arsenal of tools for saving huge amounts of time and earning more money in the coming years.
Stay tuned for more news on Architizer’s marketplace for building-products, and be sure to check out the latest features as we continue improving functionality on the platform.
Top image: “The Mountains” Mixed-Use Development, planned for construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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